Nooning

I have adjusted pretty well to life in Israel but I cannot for the life of me get used to this whole “noon” and “afternoon” thing.

For my whole life…”noon” has meant 12 o’clock — midday.
That’s how it is in the world. Noon = midday = 12 o’clock.

Now, suddenly, I have to get used to the concept that in Israel “noon” means anything after 12:00 until 4:00 p.m. and you have to be specific. Even worse is that it typically means 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. It’s this WHOLE block of freaking time that people are so ambiguous about…and it doesn’t even really include the actual NOON.

And “afternoon”? Well “afternoon” refers to the time between 4 p.m. and dinner time.

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3 Responses to Nooning

Dictionaries are not to be trusted blindly. Ironically, most words’ meanings can’t be fully conveyed with words.

These two words simply do not bear the same meaning, even if that’s what someone taught you. I could go on and on about why I think /tsohorayim/ got to mean what it means today, but it won’t matter at all – That’s what it means, and it isn’t from English, that’s for sure. Maybe it was borrowed from some other language 2000+- years ago, but honestly, I think it’s safe to consider it original Hebrew now.

(Not that it is a reason to expect or not to expect it to mean the same as in English)

I once wrote a program that would speak the time. Until I did that, I also thought that צהריים meant noon, but it turns out that there are a few hours for which I had to say things like “one in the tzharaim”. I don’t remember at what hour it switched from “tzaharim” to “achar hatzharaim”, I don’t have that program anymore.